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Yann Novak

Surroundings

BEST MUSIC OF 2017 – earinfluxion.com
TOP 20 ALBUMS OF 2017 — acloserlisten.com
TOP 10 DRONE ALBUMS OF 2017 — acloserlisten.comBEST OF 2017: Music for Bending Light & Stopping Time – headphonecommute.comFAVORITES OF 2017 – Experimedia

Surroundings originated as a site-specific sound performance commissioned for the Hamon Observation Tower at the de Young Museum in San Francisco by the Soundwave Biennial.

Surroundings uses the organic architecture of the de Young Museum as a point of departure by incorporate field recordings captured throughout Golden Gate Park and synthesized sounds created to situate themselves within the field recordings. This relationship between the field recordings and synthesized sounds is intended to echo the symbiotic relationship between the architecture of the de Young Museum and Golden Gate Park while creating a deep and meditative listening environment.

Tracklist:

Yann Novak is a sound and visual artist living and working in Los Angeles. Through the use of sound, light and space, he explores how these intangible materials can act as catalysts to focus our awareness on the present moment and alter our perception of time. Novak’s work, whether conceptual or rooted in phenomenon, is informed by his investigations of presence, stillness and mindfulness. His works can be experienced as audiovisual installations and performances, durational performances, architectural interventions, sound diffusions, concerts and recorded sound works.

Novak’s solo and collaborative recorded works have been published on numerous releases on such labels as Éter, Farmacia901, Hibernate Recordings, LINE, Murmur Records, Touch, and Unfathomless. His recorded works have also appeared on multiple international sound art and electronic music compilations on labels such as Crónica, Dronarivm, Drone Records, Estuary Ltd., Home Normal, Mandorla, Monochrome Vision, IO Sound, among others.

REVIEWS OFSurroundings

Los Angeles-based sound and visual artist Yann Novak’s Surroundings originated as a site-specific sound performance commissioned for the Hamon Observation Tower at the de Young Museum in San Francisco by the Soundwave Biennial. Like many of Novak’s recordigs, Surroundings lives as both a document of context as well as its own meditative musical statement. The environment of the deYoung lends its acoustics as Novak gradually fades in his signature radiant haze. His cloud of shapeless drones is accentuated by field recordings of the surrounding Golden Gate Park, with Novak’s swarm of electronics and environmental recordings embedded within one another. As a result, the album serves as a document of this particular time(s) and place(s) but also stands alone as its own self-contained drone.

One might argue that by virtue of deliberately sourcing sounds from the space and surrounding park, Surroundings is, at its core, the antithesis of ambient listening; this is not music that is intended to fade into wallpaper but instead serves as a living, breathing, in-the-moment experience that encourages listeners to hear its quiet details and environmental resonance. At 28 minutes, it’s a shorter one from Novak, whose releases on his own Dragon’s Eye label are often at least an hour, but it makes sense given its installation context; most passersby won’t be likely to stick around for a full hour. In the bigger picture of Novak’s repertoire as a sound artist (and considering it more as standalone audio, free of context), Surroundings feels like yet another piece within the scope of his larger ongoing body of minimal sound work, set apart only slightly by its marriage of inspired site specific collaborations with the sublime, electronic atmospheres at which Novak so often excels. Deep, meditative, and immersive; highly recommended.
(earinfluxion.com)

Yann Novak’s Surroundings was commissioned for the Hamon Observation Tower at the de Young fine arts museum in San Francisco. It became the very atmosphere of the place, as well as ushering out the sound of the city and the local park. Its ambient citizenship looked down at the loud, blaring city with a hushed disposition, watching the daily grind from on high. Higher altitudes gave the music first a sense of peace and then of distance. Spaciousness was born out of that parental bond. Surroundingswas both a part of the city and the heart of the city, both a lonesome onlooker and a crucial participant…away from things and yet closer than you think.
(acloserlisten.com)

As expected, you can leave it up to Yann Novakto come up with a beautiful, “deep and meditative listening environment” that has the same effect as a revitalizing power nap: a 30 minute dive into eternity.
(ambientblog.net)

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Surroundings first emerged as a site-specific sound performance commissioned for the Hamon Observation Tower at the de Young fine arts museum in San Francisco.

Yann Novak used the museum’s striking architecture to shape a spacious world of glistening, natural sound, and Surroundings explores its clean atmosphere. On top of that, a quiet array of field recordings, captured nearby in Golden Gate Park, bleed into gently layered synthesized drones; it inhabits a carefully balanced, settled space.

The light drone is inflated with a spell of liberated, risen air. Up above, a soft breeze blows against the cusp of the tower’s glass, and a kinder, barely-stirring wind blows through the park, rustling silent blades of grass. The music is glass-like, mirroring the tower. It somehow curves and is clear to the point of being translucent. It provides a great view – one of the best – of a city and its emerald stripes. Distant murmurs hint at a breathing city lying just on the horizon. Sounds quietly enter the music’s inner circle, passing through like a passenger jet on final approach, just a tiny blip on the radar, but instead of distancing itself from the noise, Surroundingschooses to embrace it. San Francisco’s heartbeat is here, with her admirable liberal qualities proudly displayed, accepting people from all walks of life.

The unobtrusive field recordings flow quietly, a streamlined source of sound surrounding the drone in a completely natural way. Everything is co-existing, all living in harmony with each other. A hundred lanes of grinding traffic converge and split, and a vast network of tributaries dissect the concrete blocks. Despite the downtown deadlock, Surroundings is a beautifully meditative piece, gazing upon the city with adoring eyes. It echoes the symbiotic relationship existing between the museum and the park, and between the park and the rest of the city. All is one – one unified state, one unified drone.
(acloserlisten.com)